Trekking and teacher training

Hello everyone... i'm afraid it's another long one... though with some good pictures to break it up!

Since we arrived in a holiday period it has not been possible to visit any more schools to date but we have kept ourselves busy.

The night before Alan and Elaine left for their trekking trip we celebrated Elaine’s birthday with a little surprise party on our homestay balcony with some balloons, chocolate cake and beer!! We were joined by our host family, Dhani, Janeke and their ten year old son Abbi. Julia, a German girl, who was also staying at the homestay, joined us too and invited me to join her on a trek she was doing the following day to Rani Ghat, which we had been told was a 7 hour day trek.

I woke at 5am and bleary eyed got ready to head out. A short while later Julia and I followed Dhani, who often goes on early morning walks, up the track to the top of the hill in Tansen, in amongst a pine forest. After about 20 minutes of walking at a frantic pace to keep up with Dhani we came to a concrete lighthouse shaped structure and climbed the seemingly never ending spiral staircase but were rewarded at the top by a fantastic view of Tansen and the cloud sitting in the valley, giving rise to the name for the valley, White lake. It was a little cloudy but as the Sun rose, some of the mist cleared and we saw glimpses of the Annapurna range, the frontier of the Himalayas, spread out in the distance. The lighthouse structure gave us great 360 degree views of the surrounding area and although the cloud meant that the Himalayan range was partially obscured the surrounding hills and valleys looked beautiful in the early morning sun. 

Sunrise over Tansen and the 'white lake' of cloud which often sits in the valley in the morning.

Goats relaxing outside a home in Kailahnagar.

 
Having watched the sun rise, Julia and I headed off and left Dhani behind. We stopped after a short distance at Kailahnagar, a medium sized village, for breakfast on a balcony, again with fantastic views.

At 8am we set out and enjoyed a pleasant walk down the valley towards Rani Ghat. It was fairly easy walking along mostly decent tracks though with some scrambling down steeper sections. As we got closer to the bottom of the valley the track, which is sometimes used by jeeps, became worse with sheer drops down the side and a high cliff rising up above it. In one section the track in front of us was completely blocked by the remnants of a big landslide but on foot, we were able to scramble over it and continue on a short way further to Rani Ghat. 

Rani Ghat itself was described as the Nepali Taj Mahal, a rather bold claim, and what we found was a charming, though rather decaying, building with overgrown gardens. It was however in a beautiful setting alongside the mighty Kali Ghandaki River and nestled amongst the surrounding hills. There was a huge suspension foot bridge across the river – apparently the second longest in Nepal. The bridge had previously been swept away during floods and before the new one was built a ferry used to take people across. During the drier months this would be operated by one man but in the monsoon season it would require a six man team to get the ferry across and the ferry would end up half a kilometre downstream by the time they had paddled it across. Clearly the bridge makes things much easier for the people here!

Next day delivery Nepali style!

One of the many beautiful varieties of butterflies in Nepal - this one was fine and not stuck in the mud!

The picturesque village of Aure.

Julia peering into the valley below - we were glad we were not in a jeep on this track, though have been down some equally scary ones!

First sight of Rani Ghat (on left) with the 222m long suspension bridge, the second longest in Nepal.

Julia and I on the smaller bridge at Rani Ghat.

The charming Rani Ghat - not quite the Taj Mahal, but set in a beautiful valley and very picturesque in it's own right.

After stopping for a quick lunch, and conscious that our walk down had taken rather longer than we had been advised (some of the ideas for timings on these walks seem like they are based on someone moving at the speed of Usain Bolt!!), we continued on our way, climbing steeply up the other side of the valley. The way up seemed to go on and on and in the heat was hard work! The views though made it worth it. The way back was a longer route but was worth taking. We could see the track we had walked down on the other side of the valley, way below us, with people walking along it looking more like ants. The lovely part of this walk was the friendliness of the people we met, and as Westerners we seemed to be an object of curiosity. I lost count of how many children in particular bounded up to us, shouting ‘Namaste’ to us!

Looking down on the path we walked along on the way to Rhani Ghat (zoomed in version below)

Surrounded by children, excited to see a photo of themselves.

An eagle soars above.

A baby goat - thankfully he survived Dashian!

A family constructing a swing. These swings are often built during festival time.

Towards the end of the trek we passed through lush green paddy fields and as we made our final climb up to Tansen, the views over to the whole Annapurna range, the frontier of the Himalayas, were incredible despite being over 80 miles away!!

Arriving back in Tansen in the dark we went for some well-earned food and a couple of Everest beers!

The lush green paddy fields we passed through before our final, and long, climb back up to Tansen.

Our views of the Annapurna range towards the end of our trek. It was an exhausting walk but worth it!

The following day Julia, Barbara and I went once more to watch the sunrise from the top of the hill before having breakfast and waving Julia off as she returned to Pokhara before heading home. 

The next few days were spent starting to get things ready for our teacher training and shopping for resources in Tansen. Saran also invited us to spend the day with him and his family for Dashian, Nepal’s biggest festival, celebrating the triumphs of Gods and Goddesses over demons. It was really nice to be invited and to spend the main day of the festival (though the whole thing is 15 days long!) in a Nepali home and we were fed, seemingly continuously, with some lovely Nepali food (it’s not a good time of year to be a pig or a goat in Nepal!).

Me being 'Tikka'd'

Unfortunately almost the entire time we were at Saran’s house we were cooped up inside as it rained continuously for at least 36 hours. It was an enjoyable experience though and we were given lots of Tikka, a red powder, on our forehead, which is a form of blessing. 

Barbara being 'Tikka'd'

Saran with his wife, Santi and their son, Sohan.

Tikka forms an important part of Dashian.

We returned to Tansen and were expecting to be joined shortly after by Alan and Elaine who had been trekking around Pokhara. Unfortunately the bus conductor on their bus fell asleep and failed to stop their bus at the turn off to Tansen until after Alan and Elaine had realised meaning that they had to continue along the rather dodgy road to Bhutwal, an hour and a half further on, and get a bus straight back to Tansen when they got there!!

They arrived back at about 8pm by which time we had lost power due to the rainstorms, an outage that lasted for three days and rather disrupted our preparations for teacher training! The next few days we did what we could without power and actually made a lot of the resources without the use of a computer which in many ways was actually good as it showed that simple but effective resources could be created without the need for technology, which for many teachers would be unattainable. The final day we did have power and so were able to get lots of printing done and make up packs for each of the teachers attending the training. 

Saran trying out a puppet before teacher training.

When the day came we took a taxi down to the venue – it was only a short walk but we were heavily laden with materials. The room, without decoration, looked very gloomy, much like many of the classrooms we had seen to date, but we soon transformed it with some colourful posters and displays. By 10 am, our start time, we only had 8 people who had turned up and we were rather concerned by this but soon after, many more turned up, some of whom had walked 2 hours to be with us.

The first day we delivered was on Phonics which Elaine led with support from myself, being the two Primary trained volunteers, but Barbara, Alan and Saran were fantastic in their support and with logistics of getting everything running smoothly. In the afternoon, having given lots of ideas and explained the structure of a phonics lesson, we asked our trainees to think of some ideas for phonics activities. They found this a challenge but with some guidance came up with some good ideas.

The next day we ran a session on interactive Maths, which I led, with the support of Elaine. I was rather nervous about this but it went really well and the trainees really got on board with the interactive activities and enthusiastically (after a little encouragement at first). There were some highlights I must mention, a shape game where the trainees had to find people with the cards which might match theirs so one set of cards might be a picture of a square, the word ‘square’, a statement reading ‘has four corners’ and another statement reading ‘ has four equal sides. We put in other sets of cards for circle, rectangle, pentagon and hexagon. This exercise went down really well so hopefully will start to be enjoyed by some children in Nepalese classrooms (I must give credit to Sarah Shakles from Upton primary school, where I did my PGCE placement, for this idea!). Elaine led some good work with number cards and Alan became a ‘magic magician’ to demonstrate how the cards could be used with algebra problems (the candidates loved this but also found it extremely funny that his mobile went off in his pocket mid act and we had to point out to him that it was his phone ringing and not anyone else’s!).

Afterwards the trainees came up with some ideas for interactive ideas of their own from different areas of mathematics and we were really impressed with some of the creative ideas they came up with to demonstrate different concepts. On the second day we had teachers joining us mid-session – from schools we don’t work with to come and join in as the other trainees had called them and told them they should come down! In the end we had 28 trainees from 14 different schools. In the afternoon Barbara talked to them about long term planning – something which really does not happen much here (or any other type of planning for that matter). All in all it was a great success and we had some really great feedback. Some trainees did find the language challenging (it was delivered in English) but on the whole they were really positive about the training they received.

The whole team, Barbara, Alan, Elaine and Saran have been absolutely brilliant and it has been great working with them. 

Teacher training (Will post some more pics of this later).

Lunch in the grounds of the temple during teacher training.

These boys couldn't keep away and were desperate to read the books we had.

We are now in Pokhara after another long but beautiful bus journey. Alan and Elaine have headed off on their trek to Annapurna base camp and Barbara, Saran and I are taking a cheap flight up to Jomson, which I passed through on the Annapurna circuit four years ago, and we will do some shorter walks from there. 

View from the road on our way to Pokhara (See below also)

Passing over the Kali Ghandaki river. Saran threw a coin in as we went past to bless our journey.

Women and children taking their goat for a walk!

View of Matchupuchare, also known as 'The Fishtail' on the approach to Pokhara.

Close up of Machupuchare.

Barbara and Saran out at dinner.

Once again and apologies for the plug but the link to the donation page is http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?uniqueVmgCharityUrl=manishachildwelfarefoundationnepaluk

If you can just give a small donation it would be greatly appreciated however small. Government funding is less than £1 per student per year for all of their pens, pencils and exercise books, so a little money really can go a long way!

Hope everyone is well and you haven’t dozed off after a rather lengthy blog entry!

Just some pictures...

View from our first hotel in Tansen.

On the road... some sheer drops but beautiful scenery.

Our welcoming party at Dumre.

Busting some moves ... Nepali style!

This lady wouldn't let me off the dance floor!!!

Settling into life in Nepal...

So after 10 days (now 12 as I didn’t get a chance to upload this after I wrote it!) I thought it a good time to give an update of what we have been up to before I forget anything. It has been a mind-blowing and surreal experience so far! Even having been there before,  Kathmandu still amazed me with how it bombarded your senses – so many different sights, sounds and smells. There is a constant hubbub of activity and it is quite an experience to immerse yourself within it, though always good to retreat back to the sanctuary of a rooftop bar and watch all the craziness unfold below.

We spent two nights in Kathmandu – the first evening we had a rest in our rooms before venturing out for some food. We were staying in an area called Thamel, a maze of alleyways packed with small shops selling traditional Nepali souvenirs and fabrics. On our first full day we set about our business and took a taxi out to a big bookshop / toyshop where we spent a good couple of hours looking at books and toys which we felt would be useful to our schools. We found all manner of things which we hadn’t expected – does anyone remember learning to read with the Peter and Jane books?! They had them! We bought a large selection of books mostly English, as there is a big emphasis on helping children to speak English. We did however buy some Nepali books for them to enjoy too. We also bought some percussion packs, a set of recorders and various other games and toys which will help the children to learn in a more interactive manner.

We returned to our hotel heavily laden and had a short rest before going to visit Bouddha, a Buddhist temple which Nepalis visit, particularly around sunset and they walk all the way round the monument spinning the prayer wheels and praying. We saw one particularly holy man who would shuffle forward a few steps before getting to his knees and lying flat down on the floor for a few seconds, getting up and repeating the process. It was amazing to see a show of such devotion!

On the way back we stopped up at some beautiful gardens, known as The Garden of Dreams, where we stopped and had dinner. The gardens were beautiful and it was a great way to escape from the chaotic streets of Kathmandu.

The next morning we began our long journey out of the Kathmandu valley, Westward towards Tansen. The views the entire way were spectacular as we followed the contours of the ‘hills’ (which in England would certainly be described as mountains!). There were some scary moments on the road with sheer drops into the valley below only inches away! The journey took 9 ½ hours in which we covered only 100 miles or so as the crow flies (the reality is the route is much longer but because of the landscape the roads cannot follow a straight line!). Part of the road we travelled along featured in a UK TV programme ‘The World’s most dangerous roads’ – it was easy to see why with the sheer drops and the drivers willingness to overtake on blind bends!

We were greeted by Saran, our Nepali volunteer, who presented us with a flower garland and Tikka, a red powder pushed onto the forehead with a finger to make a dot. He took us to our guesthouse and we enjoyed some dinner from a roof terrace with a magnificent view of the valley below and surrounding hills.

We spent a couple of days in Tansen getting to know the town, it is a small town perched upon a hilltop at 1420. It has a distinctly medieval feel owing to its steep cobbled streets and narrow alleyways with beautiful Newari style houses with intricately carved windows and rooftops. Our first visit was to the Lahrepipal school which sadly had shut down but we found it being used for a training programme for young men and women in electricity and dress making respectively. Given the school’s closure (it was deemed too small to be cost effective) it seemed like a good use of the facilities. We did speak to a former teacher who assured us that the children had been relocated to another school. We also visited the school of Utpal, a Rotary member who is keen to work with us and it will be very useful to have an organisation based in Nepal who can offer support and manage projects, particularly when there are no Manisha UK representatives out here.  His school seemed like an excellent one and we had a productive meeting with him and some of the staff. The children greeted us very enthusiastically and we were an object of much interest!

We also discovered that the Nepalis have decided this year to join two festivals, Doshian and Tihar into one extended break of one month!! This means that we will not be able to do any teaching in classrooms nevertheless we have plenty to keep us busy and have organised dates for a teacher training programme between the two festivals from which we have so far had a good response.

We also visited the school of Pipal Danda, located to the North of Tansen with a long and precarious dirt track leading up to it. The views from up there were spectacular but unfortunately the progress made in a building project we had undertaken was less than spectacular. We hope to get the building work back underway as soon as possible.  

On Sunday we visited Bhalebas, Saran’s home village and were greeted by children and staff of the school who had come especially on the first day of the holidays. The children lined the pathway as we approached and presented us with garlands and bouquets of flowers. It was an amazing and overwhelming welcome that surpassed all of our expectations. We looked around the school and whilst there were some very good features there are also things that need to be done!

We spent the evening being entertained by Nepalese dancing and they were very enthusiastic about us joining in. Those of you who know me will know that saying I’m not the best dancer is an understatement but I gave it a go and they were thoroughly entertained by my attempts!! The local wine, known as Roksi helped my confidence though not necessarily my ability!

The next day we were given a tour round Mr Singh’s farm. He had many ingenious ways of doing jobs that would be automated over here and we also saw his weaving shop which contained very complicated looking wooden looms which the girls from the school with worked on during holiday periods.

Later we went down to Saran’s place for breakfast before heading to Dumre, a school who had contacted us and are interested in the twinning programme. The greeting there was even more spectacular. A band accompanied us up the hill as we walked towards the school surrounded by about 50 teachers and pupils and at the top of the hill were literally hundreds of children lining the pathway and we were given garlands and flowers, there were so many that halfway along the line someone had to take the flowers as we could not carry any more! After looking at their excellent library and having a look around the school’s classrooms, some of which were in desperate need of repair, we had some lunch and then watched a show of Nepalese dancing put on by the villagers and again were encouraged to join in – it always seemed to be me who got picked out!!

In the evening we went to a wedding party of one of the villagers, a fantastic experience with yet more Roksi and dancing!! There was one woman who pulled me up onto the dance floor (just us on the dance floor surrounded by everyone watching) and every time I thought it was over I went to return to my seat and every time I felt the back of my shirt pulled as she dragged me back onto the dance floor!!!

We were given a lovely send off as we left and returned to Tansen happy but exhausted. The generosity of the people is absolutely outstanding. Some of these people have so little but they always ensure you are fed first and will keep bringing you more and more.

I am now back in Tansen having a rest day and also starting to prepare for the teacher training programme. We are now staying in a house with a charming Nepalese family. They have a 12 year old son who has greatly enjoyed our presence.

The whole Manisha team out here, Barbara, Alan, Elaine and Saran have been great and I’ve really enjoyed working with them.  

Before I left I was presented with a rugby ball by Bredon under 10’s whom I help coach so I have been taking the ball round and the children love it! I will have to set about setting up a team!!!!

If you would like to make a donation at any point, however small or big, it would be greatly appreciated. This can be done through http://www.mcwfnepal-uk.org/ . Just a small amount can go a long long way!

I hope everyone at home is well.

Andy